Week of 8/12/2021

First, our congratulations to Bea on the birth of her granddaughter several weeks ago! She visited the office for the first time yesterday and we were happy to meet her. This summer, the Joes have visited several National Parks, including Badlands, Wind Cave, Yellowstone, & Glacier. During the most recent visit, to Wyoming & Montana, the impact of Covid-19 on a “fully open” economy was evident. The appetite for travel is extremely high, with many restaurants and other stores telling us they had never seen higher demand. At the same time, their capacity to meet the demand remains limited. Many businesses had posted signs seeking additional employees, some with hiring bonuses of hundreds of dollars. When checking bags at the Kalispell airport, there was one agent handling 3 flights worth of baggage. She explained that Covid-related issues had 6 employees unavailable for work. In addition to the current strain on hospitals and front-line workers, Covid continues to reduce economic capacity. We hope there is more motivation for increased vaccinations as the data shows much better outcomes when breakthrough cases occur (and which remain a very small percentage of new cases). For a review of a turbulent July, the month-end market recap is available here and Brad McMillan’s market thoughts video is here.

Many of you know our family’s personal connection to heart disease and involvement with the American Heart Association. We are participating in the 2021 Alachua Heart Walk. Whether the event takes place in-person or not, we are proud to support the organization and welcome your participation as walkers or supporters of the cause. You can even join team “Lowry Financial Advisors." The tax implications of owning cryptocurrency are not well-understood. This is a helpful explanation about how those assets are taxed. The recent Olympic Games reminded us how tight the margins are in sports like swimming. The events are timed using hundredths of a second and not thousandths of a second because a thousandth of a second could result in 2.39 mm of travel and pools cannot be built within such a small tolerance. In other words, some lanes may be a few millimeters longer than others. The size of the pool can change based on temperature and the number of people in the pool. In other Olympic trivia, all of the metal used in the medals was recycled from mobile phones and electronics. The deep sea remains a mystery in many ways. A recent study by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute examined years of deep sea footage to provide a clearer picture of who-eats-who in the dark depths.

*The links provided are strictly for educational/informational purposes only and do not constitute a recommendation for or against cryptocurrency.

Ask the Joes®(&Cale) will return next week!

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